It is desirable to manage forces applied to the vehicle, e.g. in a rear impact, to avoid certain vehicle components, such as those associated with the fuel system and proximate to and within the vehicle occupant cabin. However, packaging constraints and other design considerations, such as weight efficient architectures to improve fuel efficiency, limit the design space and use of conventional reinforcements. Accordingly, improving energy management within current design space and performance parameters is desirable, but currently challenging.